Can Afghan Woman Speak?: Resisting Western Stereotyping of Afghan Women and Repressive Gender Policies in Two Afghan Ethnoautobiographies by Zoya and Latifa

Document Type : Original Article

Author

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES ARAB ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MARITIME

Abstract

Afghan women have been described as abandoned and harassed for many years. They are described as poor, marginalized and pushed to the edge. They are depicted as birds with broken wings, silent and unable to experience happiness and joy. As the global media portrays, Afghan women are seen as creatures who must face discrimination and marginalization from men and fundamentalist societies. Zoya, Latifa, and Malalai Joya are three Afghan women fighters; in their memoirs, they speak about the deplorable condition of women in so-called democratic Afghanistan.Memoirs and life stories of Afghan women show a new understanding of life under oppression and how they strive to maintain their autonomy in the face of repression and subjugation. The memoirs show that Afghan women are neither submissive nor passive figures but have retained their autonomy under the rule of the Soviet Union and the Taliban. In the context of feminist literary debates, this research is framed by administering an approach that combines Michel Foucault's theory of Power/ Knowledge and Stuart Hall's theory of Representation / Stereotyping and directing a discussion of three memoirs of three Afghan women fighters. The researcher's main argument is to challenge the contemporary belief that Afghan women were passive characters in their history.

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References

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